docs: def is_text(obj, name=None):
      """
      returns True if object is text-like
      """
      try:  # python2
          ans = isinstance(obj, basestring)
      except NameError:  # python3
          ans = isinstance(obj, str)
      if name:
          print("is_text: (%s) %s = %s" % (ans, name, obj.__class__),
                file=sys.stderr)
      return ans